Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Rotating Wheel Space Station/Habitat, Part I

(Dean Ellis’ cover for the 1973 edition of Operation Umanaq (1973), John Rankine)

Here are only a small portion of the cover images I’ve collected of space stations and space habitats of the rotating wheel variety — i.e. the ring (or a torus) spins creating pseudo-gravity. As in the double-wheeled space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)… I have always been enamored with space stations/habitats which was part of reason I adored Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a kid (although today I prefer it over the over Star Treks due to the complicated arc and inter character relationships/friendships) — however, the station would have been so much more interesting if the gravity wasn’t artificially generated but rather created by a rotating wheel.

My favorite is Dean Ellis’ cover for the 1973 edition of Operation Umanaq (1973) by John Rankine — it is ultra realistic and nicely detailed against a vivid background. Of all of Earle Bergey’s pulp art I’ve always enjoyed his cover for the 1953 edition of Space Platform (1953) by Murray Leinster…. It depicts a torus space habitation being built on the ground with (I’m guessing) the rockets attached to launch it into space.

A very nice collection! The Spaceway: Stories of the Future cover made my eyes hurt, though. Not in a bad art way, just all those sweeping lines intersecting at strange angles made it hard to see what was going on.

Yeah, definitely. The weirdness I was getting was from following the main lines of the wings, then the eye slips off and finds itself following a similar curve on the main-fuselage’s tail, then off onto the other wing. Composition is supposed to guide the eye around the whole image, but in that one its a bit of an obstacle course. A good idea though. I’m not sure the Aerospace companies of the future would appreciate a bunch of workers assembling their ships quite like that though – somewhat imprecise use of rocketized pogo sticks. 🙂